Hoof poultices and soaks are used for hoof injuries, abscesses, puncture wounds, thrush, white line disease and other foot problems. Not a recent discovery, poultices of various types of clay and mud have been used for human afflictions for thousands of years, and eventually for their animals as well.
Therapeutic shoeing has made great advances in the past few decades, partly because there’s more interest in this specialty, and also because of the development of better methods for dealing with therapeutic situations.
Therapeutic shoeing refers to the various ways and methods that can be utilized to help a hoof recover from a medical problem, injury or some kind of functional impairment.
While working on this 35th Anniversary issue of American Farriers Journal, I've been paging through back issues. At times I can almost feel the heat of the forges and hear the distant echo of hammer ringing on steel.
The sole is the guardian that shields the sensitive structures of the hoof from contact with the outside world. Acting as the primary barrier against ground surface trauma, it is designed to handle concussion naturally; however, it seems that this once efficient protector has become one of the most abused structures of a horse’s anatomy.
Horses aren’t uniform creatures. Each one has a slight — or not so slight —deviation in conformation that affects the way it travels and performs. That’s why Michael Wildenstein stresses the importance of evaluating everything —from the hairline of the hoof to the muscling in the shoulders — when trimming and shoeing.
On its back cover, Equine Podiatry promises “a collaborative approach to the care and shoeing of equine feet, making it ideal for both veterinarians and farriers.”
Pointing out that hoof balance or imbalance helps explain much about the mechanics of the foot, Michael Wildenstein says you need to evaluate both to determine how to trim and shoe to reduce abnormal stress in the moving horse. He told members of the American Association of Equine Veterinarians at their annual conference in San Antonio, Texas, that fully understanding the mechanics of the hoof actually makes it easier to balance the hoof.
In this episode, Mark Ellis, a Wisconsin farrier who learned the ropes with Renchin, recalls Red’s relationships with area veterinarians, his legacy and the second career as American Farriers Journal’s technical editor.
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